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LIBERAL EDUCATION. 



AN 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY 






HARVARD COLLEGE 



JULY 2 2, 185 



BY 



REV. THOMAS HILL, 



OF WALTHAM. 



'9. 



f 



c/)CAM BRIDGE: 

PUBLISHED BY JOHN BARTLETT. 

1858. 



■10 



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aC,^ 



CAMBRIDGE : 
ALLEN AND FARNIIAM, PRINTERS. 



ADDRESS. 



Brethren of the Phi Beta Kapiia Society ; Ladies and Gen- 
tlemen who have honored us with your presence : — 

The motto of our society, and the avowed objects for 
which it was instituted, must be my apology for the 
seeming abruptness of entering, without any prefatory 
remarks, upon the subject to which I intend to invite 
your attention. The "promotion of a sound literature" 
depends, in a large measure, upon the promotion of a 
sound education. The natural tastes of a young student 
are so much modified and so unequally cultivated in 
the course of his preliminary and collegiate education, 
that his choice of a special pursuit is frequently deter- 
mined more by his culture than by natural attraction ; 
and his proficiency in the chosen pursuit is also largely 
affected by the character of his preliminary study. 

To what more important and more interesting ques- 
tion, therefore, could I invite your attention than to 
this : What princij^les should guide us in the selection 



and arrangement of studies in the academic course, — 
that is, in the whole course previous to the student's 
entering uj)on the particular special pursuits to which 
his tastes or his choice of a profession will finally lead 
him? 

What branches are essential, and which are not 
essential ? How far should the essential branches be 
carried? How far should non-essential branches be 
permitted to occupy the student's time ? What powers 
of the mind most need education? How shall it be 
given them ? What principles should guide us — this 
is the discussion to which I invite your attention — 
what principles should guide us in deciding these 
various points ? 

I do not propose to discuss this subject as a question 
of policy for our own Alma Mater, nor with reference 
to the success of the student in after-life ; but, so far as 
my powers may suffice, in the broad ligKt of duty, — 
of the relations of the soul to the universe and to its 
Maker. 

The principles which should regulate the course of 
collegiate study may evidently be reached by three in- 
dependent lines of approach, and the identity of the 
results attained by these three independent methods 
would be a sufficient proof of their correctness. 

We might first survey the literature, arts, and science 
of the historic races, and from the various success of 
their attempts at liberal culture, compared wdth the 
various modes in which they attempted it, draw our 



conclusions as to tlie wisdom of these modes, and the 
somidness or unsoundness of the principles on which 
they were founded. Or we might, in the second place, 
observe the course of Divine Providence in its dealing 
with us, the children and scholars of the heavenly 
teacher, and draw from the studies and discipline of the 
school of life, the principles which should govern the 
schools of men. 

Either of these modes of inquiry will lead to the 
same results as those which may be obtained from a 
survey of the powers of the human mind and of the 
objects on which those powers can be exercised. 

The passive powers of the human soul may be divided 

with sufficient accuracy for the purposes of the present 

discussion into three groups : sensational, emotional, and 

intellectual. I have named these groups in the order 

of their connection with, and dependence upon, the 

physical frame and the material world. All these are in 

various degrees under the control of the active powder, 

that is of the will, and all are conjointly employed in 

nearly every ordinary act of life. A perfectly trained 

man must therefore have all his powers cultivated. 

They are all capable of improvement through proper 

education, and the culture of any one set of powers 

will, of necessity, in some measure improve the rest. 

A scholar should cultivate even the powers of simple 

sense ; for without accurate perception and delicacy of 

muscular action, there can be no high executive power 

in the arts, and no great attainment in the sciences of 

1 * 



6 



observation. That the intellectual powers need a care- 
ful training is conceded by all men. The emotional 
powers stand in no less need of culture, without which 
both morals and art (which are the expressions of the 
higher emotions, the one in life, the other in artistic 
work) must suffer. Most of all does the will need self- 
imposed restraints, or rather need to subject itself volun- 
tarily to the discipline which the Father has appointed. 
Religion is the education of the will, to teach it to sub- 
mit to the laws of reason and of duty. 

And since there can be no perception through simple 
sense without intellectual effort ; no emotion with- 
out consciousness, more or less distinct (and conscious- 
ness is thought) ; and, finally, no volition without 
motive, either based on judgment or emotion ; it is 
manifest that a full enumeration of the objects of 
human thought will include all the objects that can 
influence the culture of the man. Nor do I consider it 
necessary in our rapid review of the objects on which 
the human powers can be exercised, to do more than to 
attempt a rough classification of things actually in ex- 
istence, and concerning which we may attain to more 
or less of knowledge. 

I am accustomed to regard the hierarchy of sciences 
as composed essentially of five different grades, accord- 
ing as the sciences deal with one or another of the five 
series of existing things. For the universe, so far as it 
can be the object of our knowledge, consists of only 
these five portions : first, the Infinite Spirit, the Supreme 



Will at the head of all ; secondly, men, the finite spirits, 
the limited wills ; thirdly, the acts of these finite crea- 
tures ; fourthly, the actions of the Infinite Being, be- 
side those included in the formation and guidance of 
our spirits ; fifthly, and finally, the field and space of 
time wherein these works are wrought. Thus I would 
include all possible sciences under these five heads: 
Theology, which refers to the Divine Being; Psychology, 
using that word to include all that belongs to the human 
powers of thought, feeling, or perception ; History, ex- 
tending the signification of the term to include all the 
thoughts and achievements of men ; Natural History, in 
which I place also the chemical and the mechanical 
sciences ; and, fifthly. Mathematics. I shall, during the 
remainder of the time which your indulgence may 
grant me to-day, use the words history and natural his- 
tory in these extended senses. 

I am aware that there may be some difficulty in de- 
ciding to which of these five divisions some of the special 
sciences belong, and we may be tempted to say that 
they belong to several at once, or that they are not in- 
cluded in any of the divisions. But I believe never- 
theless that this primary classification will stand a close 
examination, and that the whole range of the objects 
of scientific study is included in, and divided between, 
theology, psychology, history, natural history, and 
mathematics. 

And these five departments are so connected that 
one continually leads to the other, and cannot naturally 



8 



be taught without the other. They naturally follow 
each other in the inverse order to that in which I have 
named them, and it is absolutely impossible to know 
any thing of theology unless we first know something 
of psychology ; any thing of psychology without some 
previous knowledge of history ; any thing of history 
without some slight acquaintance with natural history ; 
any thing of natural history without some previous idea 
of number and form, that is of mathematical truth- 
This order is observed even in the first hours of an in- 
fant's life, and no man can watch the development of 
his own child's mind, with any degree of care, without 
perceiving the folly of attempting to teach a child any 
thing pertaining to any one of these branches of knowl- 
edge without previously teaching him the correspond- 
ing truths in the lower branches. All knowledge is 
built upon a double basis of consciousness and percep- 
tion ; and the five great divisions of the hierarchy of 
science are arranged in exact proportion to the relative 
importance of the two bases in each branch. That is 
to say, in mathematics we rest chiefly on observation 
and perception, very slightly on consciousness ; in the- 
ology we rest chiefly on consciousness, very slightly on 
observation ; and, of the other three sciences, natural 
history most closely resembles mathematics in this 
respect, while psychology most nearly resembles .the- 
ology. 

The powers of the child are developed in this same 
order. At first he is a being of sensation and simple 



9 



emotion, with but feeble thought and feeble will ; but if 
he comes to the stature of perfect manhood, he becomes 
a being of unconquerable will, of comprehensive intel- 
lect, while the emotions are no more intense than in 
youth, and the sensations perhaps not so vivid. This 
order of development in the child's powers indicates the 
propriety of cultivating them in the same order ; first 
taking the studies most dependent on perception, and 
least on consciousness, and leaving a thorough examina- 
tion of metaphysical questions for the adult powers. 
Now, geometry is least dependent on consciousness ; it 
deals with space, which we conceive of as wholly dis- 
connected with our own spirits. The physical sciences, 
whether organic or inorganic, require a maturer con- 
sciousness that can turn inward and compare that which 
is written in the mind, the sense of efficiency, the love 
of harmony, etc., with that which is seen without, the 
action of the Divine will and Divine purpose. Physics 
are therefore fitted for riper minds than those to whom 
geometry appeals. In like manner history requires a 
more constant interpretation from consciousness, than is 
required by physics ; and psychology, more than is de- 
manded by history. 

Every mode, indeed, in which I have viewed the sub- 
ject, brings me to the same conclusion, that the mathe- 
matics are the preliminary studies ; that they should be 
followed first by natural history, then by history, and 
finally by psychology and theology. I do not of course 
mean that the child is to receive no religious instruction, 



10 

until he has mastered all that is known on the other 
subjects ; for I have already said that the powers of the 
soul are developed somewhat simultaneously. The 
order of succession which I have named applies particu- 
larly to the periods of their attaining maturity. What 
I do intend to say is, that these five branches of studies 
should, in every stage of common or liberal education, 
keep proportionate pace with each other; that the 
parent or teacher should watch the development of the 
child's mind and character, giving it the higher truth so 
soon as it is prej)ared for it ; but remembering that one 
necessary part of the preparation is, the study of the 
lower truths. 

And yet what has been the usual practice, even to the 
present time ? The study of natural history, which in 
a true education naturally lies between mathematics 
and history, is almost wholly neglected, and men have 
gone to the pursuits of art, literature, law, divinity, and 
even medicine, without any proper knowledge, even 
the most elementary, of mechanics, chemistry, botany, 
or zoology. Their culture has lacked the natural and 
necessary basis ; their speculations have been vague 
and fanciful, their reasoning specious and unsound, and 
their practice shallow and empirical. The evil, it wdll 
be perceived, lies further back in education than in our 
colleges ; it commences in our nurseries and in our 
primary schools. The mother, and the teacher, not 
having themselves been taught to look u23on the world 
of matter wdth an intelligent eye, as upon the means 



11 



which God himself has furnished for the instruction of 
children and of men, confine themselves in mathemat- 
ics to the abstractions of arithmetic, leap over all nat- 
ural history, to put the child upon the historical 
branches of spelling and grammar ; or if they teach 
geography, they omit the physical and astronomical 
treatment, and confine themselves to politics and statis- 
tics. What wonder that the child thus educated should 
learn to despise the insect and the flower ; and, being 
ignorant of the divine wisdom of that "Word which has 
created all things in number, weight, and measure, and 
filled all things with beauty, should grow wise in its 
own conceit, and find its pleasures in follies of its own 
devising ? Perhaps a judicious selection of studies in 
preparation for college, or in the curriculum there, 
might do much to repair the evilj but the selection for 
this collegiate education has usually been confined to 
mathematics and to the single historical department of 
philology. A knowledge of the Greek and Latin lan- 
guages, and of the conic sections, with the unavoidable 
growth of the mind in all directions, produced inci- 
dentally in acquiring this knowledge, have been gen- 
erally considered the principal results to be desired 
from education. There are not wanting, even at the 
present day, men to maintain that the study of the 
Greek and Latin classics comprises in itself more valu- 
able discipline for the mind, and more valuable food for 
thought, than is to be found in all the pursuits of nat- 
ural science. But this opinion can be sustained neither 



12 



from experience nor from the nature of things. The 
five great branches of the hierarchy are all essential to 
a complete education. The Greek and Latin classics, 
however thoroughly studied, give us nothing of natu- 
ral history, or almost nothing. The education which is 
founded exclusively upon them must, therefore, how- 
ever excellent in its superstructure, be defective in its 
foundations. 

Nor should those who hold in high reverence the 
masters of Grecian thought, be unwilling that the at- 
tention of the student be directed in a large measure 
to the study of natural philosophy. The culture of 
the Greeks was distinguished from that of all other of 
the ancient nations, by its breadth and variety. The 
germs of most of the modern sciences are to be found 
in its literature. Not one of the great divisions of the 
hierarchy was neglected. In mathematics they pur- 
sued geometry to a height to which few of modern 
students can follow them. In natural history, they 
have given us mechanicians like Archimedes, and nat- 
uralists like Aristotle. In history, I need but mention 
Herodotus and Thucydides, and taking history in the 
wider sense which I have given it, the great proficiency 
of the Greeks in logic, grammar, rhetoric, sculpture, 
painting, and music. In psychology, we have a Plato 
and a Socrates, as the highest examples of a type of 
mind not unfrequent in the Grecian State ; and, if we 
can show nothing worthy of high respect in their theo- 
logical speculations, it is not from their want of ability 



13 



or of attention to the subject, but simply because no 
human intellect can treat that theme worthily, until it 
has placed itself under the guidance of inspired teach- 
ers. Nor did the individual masters of Greece confine 
their attention to a single study. Their sculpture 
bears witness, that they united a knowledge of anat- 
omy and of mathematics to a love of that art. In 
architecture they combined the art of sculpture with 
the application of still more subtile mathematical and 
optical investigations. And some of their greatest 
scholars attained eminence and honor in nearly all of 
the great departments of thought. 

He, therefore, that has imbibed the true spirit of 
Grecian culture, must be led to honor all the pursuits 
of the human mind, and to seek for truth in every 
direction. That man does not so truly reverence Plato, 
who spends his days in a critical investigation of Plato's 
words, as he who is led, by a single reading of those 
eloquent pages, to devote himself with that great mas- 
ter to the pursuit of the good, the beautiful, and the 
true, — who is stimulated by Plato's meta})hysics to 
speculate with Hamilton of Edinburgh, or by Plato's 
geometry, to labor with Hamilton of Dublin. The 
schoolmen of the middle ages, settling all questions by 
an appeal to Aristotle, did not honor that great edu- 
cator, naturalist, and logician, so highly as those who, 
in imitation of his industry and docility, inquire of 
nature for the secrets intrusted to her for the benefit 
of the wise, or endeavor to extend and perfect the 

2 



14 



grammatical, logical, and rhetorical sciences for which 
Aristotle laid so secure and so broad a foundation. 

That an undue estimate of the value of Greek and 
Latin should have been made in the sixteenth century 
is by no means surprising. The culture of Europe had 
for a long time been very narrow, almost entirely ex- 
cluding physical inquiries. When the importance of 
physics and natural history first began to be felt, the 
happy change was in great measure due to the influ- 
ence of Greek authors, through the medium of Arabic 
translations, sometimes a second time translated from 
the Arabic into some other tongue. The Greek litera- 
ture appeared thus to be the California from which 
these precious treasures of science came, and the Latin 
language was at that, day the easiest mode of approach- 
ing the Greek. Thus the knowledge of these two 
tongues was a key to all the learning of that period. 
But those languages hold now a very different place. 
There is not a single department of human thought in 
which modern nations have not surpassed the achieve- 
ments, — I do not say the ability, — but the achieve- 
ments of the ancient Greeks ; new sciences have within 
the past century sprung into existence, and attained a 
rank of the highest importance, the germs of which 
were in Aristotle's day scarcely visible. New applica- 
tions of science to the useful and to the fine arts have 
changed the whole aspect of civilized society. The 
scholar of the present day is to labor with and for a 
people whose whole mode of life and mode of thought 



15 



is different from tliat of the people of a hundred years 
ago. Shall the training which prepares him for his 
work be the same as that of a hundred years ago ? As 
the course of events in the world's history runs on, and 
more important changes are developed in the state of 
human society, can it be expected that all those who 
desire a liberal culture for themselves or for their 
children, should be still satisfied with a course of in- 
struction, that devotes a principal part of the student's 
time to a critical investigation of the structure of the 
dead languages? 

I acknowledge the great importance of philological 
investigation. Language is one of the noblest of the 
works of men ; it congtitutes in its own structure the 
most complete record of human thought, and of the de- 
velopment of human character. The study of language 
is, therefore, the most essential department in that third 
great branch of the hierarchy of science to which I 
have applied the title history. "Without a proper study 
of language, it is impossible that the student should 
mal^e any progress in the higher branches of political 
economy, metaphysics, ethics, and religion. But the 
most valuable part of the study of words does not con- 
sist in acquiring that intimate familiarity with any one 
foreign language which will enable one to write or 
speak it, nor does it consist solely in the intellectual 
exercise of learning to read it, and in the intellectual 
vigor thereby produced. It consists rather in rising, by 
the study of particular examples, to a perception of 



16 



some of those general laws of thought, and laws of ar- 
ticulation, which govern, the first the syntax, rhetoric, 
and logic, the second the etymology, of all languages. 
For the purpose of attaining these general views, a 
moderate acquaintance with four or five languages 
is better than a thorough acquaintance with one or 
two. With larger views in the teacher, more benefit 
may be derived from a short course of study, than from 
a protracted drill under a teacher of microscopic views. 
I am assuming, you perceive, that the attainment of 
knowledge itself is one of the objects at which the 
student should aim. I am aware that it has been said 
the true end of liberal culture is the perfection of the 
student. It is said, that, in the university proper, the 
student is to be considered as the end in himself I 
have no objection to these statements provided they 
refer to what should be the aim of the instructors and 
of those who prescribe the studies. But when a man 
proceeds tacitly to assume that the student himself 
should look upon knowledge as valuable only as it ex- 
ercises, and by exercise develops and invigorates the 
mind, I most earnestly protest against the assumption. 
The motive from which a course of action is ordered, 
and that motive from which the action is performed, 
are seldom rightfully the same. Self-culture, proposed 
as an end in itself, is only a refined selfishness, and, like 
all other forms of selfishness, a self-destroying absurdity. 
The highest culture is unattainable by one who seeks 
it as self-culture : it is to be obtained only by the soul 



17 

that looks away from itself, and seeks out of itself for 
the good, the beautiful, and the true. Equally false is 
a second tacit assumption, that the only powers of the 
mind which need the development of a liberal culture 
are those of reasoning. Proceeding on this assumption, 
various writers have issued special pleas for various 
branches of learning as deserving of the most prom- 
inent place in an academical curriculum. One has ar- 
gued in l^ehalf of the mathematics, that they offer the 
finest specimens of connected trains of reasoning, and 
afford the finest gymnasium for the powers of consecu- 
tive thouo;ht. Another has called our attention to the 
conceded fict, that these sciences reason only of one 
kind of relation, that of quantity, and therefore are a 
less valuable intellectual exercise than metaphysical and 
moral philosophy, which deals with all things. A third 
party claim for the Latin and Greek tongues the merit 
of giving the most varied and constant exercise to the 
judgment and ingenuity of the student. A tournament 
in which such giants as the Master of Trinity College and 
the Edinburgh Professor of Logic meet, is beyond contro- 
versy a grand and entertaining spectacle. But to at least 
one observer of that contest, it appears that both cham- 
pions were contending for error, since it was assumed 
on both sides that the discipline of the logical powers 
was the chief end of liberal education. All the powers 
of the soul are essential to a perfect soul as much as all 
the members of the body are essential to a perfect body. 
It only needs to assert this doctrine to have it command 

2* 



18 

assent. Even the senses, the power of receiving im- 
pressions from the outward world, are to be held wor- 
thy of honor and of cultivation, since they are incon- 
trovertibly powers of the soul. 

Those who assert that speculative knowledge is of 
value only as it excites to speculation, and that truth 
is of value only as it leads a man to search after truth, 
must be considered as speaking in hyperbole. As dis- 
tinctly as consciousness gives us the assurance of the 
existence of objective truth, so distinctly does the in- 
stinctive thirst for truth assure us that its possession is 
a positive good in itself. "Without the faith that knowl- 
edge is a positive good, we could not embark upon the 
search for knowdedge. Truth is not only to be sought, 
but to be gained. Truth is the prize held up before 
those who wrestle with difficulties and obstructions to 
obtain it, and if we consider it worthless in itself we 
cannot strive for it. Care must therefore be taken lest, 
while setting forth strongly the value of discipline and 
exercise to the student's mind, we take from him the 
principal stimulus which can prompt him to that exer- 
cise. 

Sir William Hamilton's glorious plea in behalf of 
metaphysics, and his amusingly earnest depreciation of 
physics and mathematics as means of liberal culture, 
are therefore neither of them satisfactory, in so far as 
they assume intellectual gymnastics to be the only end 
of education ; and it would be easy to show by extracts 
from his own writings, that, in his sober judgment, he 



19 

would take a much wider view of a generous education 
than that which, in the warmth of controversy, he has 
set forth in writing. 

If truth is to be sought it must be with the hope of 
attaining it. And if the knowledge of truth is de- 
clared by our instinctive appetite to be a good, there 
is no kind of truth, which can be pronounced useless. 
A selection is doubtless to be made, since no one mind 
can learn all thiugs, but that selection should not con- 
sist in choosing objects so much as in determining the 
amount to which each is to be studied. We instinc- 
tively accord homage to a man of general information. 
Liberal culture consists in the study of every thing 
true, the pursuit of every thing beautiful and good. 
It will not answer to neglect and exclude a branch 
because it affords but a slight gymnastic to the rea- 
son. It may afford an exercise for some other equally 
valuable faculty of the soul. We are to assume that 
whatever is true is worth knowing. The moment that 
we cease to make our studies general and confine our- 
selves to one branch, no matter how lofty, we become 
specialists. The mere metaphysician, or philosopher, 
may be as profoundly lacking in judgment and taste 
as the mere mathematician, or the mere physicist. 

I am aware that in our own honored Alma Mater, 
and in some other colleges, a change in the course of 
instruction similar to that which I am now advocating 
has already begun to take place, and that I may Ije 
considered as taking on myself a superfluous task in 



20 



defending the study of the natural sciences. But I 
conceive that the changes already begun, have in most 
instances been undertaken either too rashly, or else 
too cautiously, and rather as concessions to the popu- 
lar desire than in obedience to clear and cordial con- 
victions of their utility. I have felt that the view 
which now I have given of the constitution of the 
great circle of sciences, vindicates the claim of physics 
and natural history, which I have grouped together 
under the latter term, to a prominent place in every 
general course of instruction. It is not, as I conceive 
it, a question of expediency, or a question of the 
times, but a question of inherent necessity ; a ques- 
tion of absolute duty. There can be, in my view, no 
true education that is not founded upon a knowledge 
of the mathematics; a thorough cultivation of the 
physical powers, including a discipline of the senses ; 
and an acquaintance with the laws of the material 
world, both organic and inorganic. This must be 
followed, step by step as it proceeds, with the cultiva- 
tion of the fine arts, with the analysis and use of lan- 
guage, with the lessons of history, and their applica- 
tion to the politics of our own day. And the whole 
must be, from first to last, conducted under the guid- 
ance of the highest Christian theology and Christian 
morality. I cannot see that any other culture would 
be liberal and broad for any people, of any age. In 
this scheme of education the classics hold a subordi- 
nate, but still a prominent and honorable place, in 



21 



the great department of history, Avhile the new sci- 
ences of chemistry and its alhed branches in all their 
multiform applications, to both the useful and the fine 
arts, must take an equally honorable place in the 
great department of natural history. 

The view which I have thus given has been wholly 
with reference to the culture of the intellect, and 
founded upon the hierarchy of the sciences, strictly 
so called. I have already said that the same conclu- 
sions might be reached through a different mode of 
approach. The intellect is but one of those subordi- 
nate powers, that, in a full developed man, serve the 
behests of the will. Knowledge is not the only nor 
even the highest good. Learning to know, however 
much we may learn, and however great the truths we 
may learn, gives us but a part of the soul's nourish- 
ment. As the food of organized beings must be 
varied, and a plant or an animal may be starved to 
death if confined to any food rich in all things else, 
yet lacking one essential element, so a soul may be 
dwarfed and crippled in its growth even while daily 
supplied with the richest spiritual treasures, if any 
one essential element of spiritual life be withheld. A 
man may be a perfect prodigy of learning, and know 
all that the human mind can know, an intellectual 
giant capable of grapjDling with any problem, and yet 
be lacking in the highest elements of human nature ; 
he may, for example, be lacking in that Divine energy 
of love which gives a man power to do and to endure ; 



22 



which enables a man to nse his knowledge for the 
benefit of his fellow-men. The mere acquisition of 
knowledge, the mere strengthening of the intellectual 
powers even to the understanding of every subject 
that can be fathomed by the human mind, is but a 
partial culture, and makes but a stinted and dwarfed 
man unless it is accompanied by love, by that noble 
enthusiasm which sees all truth as a part of the infi- 
nite treasures of God, and while filled with adoring 
wonder at the infinite wisdom of the Divine mind, 
burns also with a longing to lead other men to share 
with him in the holy joy. 

I have spoken of the circle of sciences as though a 
man could attain a knowledge of all the five great 
branches of human thought ; but we are told on high 
authority that if any one thinks he knows any thing, 
he as yet knows nothing as one ought to know. For 
w^e know only in part. The simplest truths that can 
be grasped by the understanding have an infinite vari- 
ety of relations, and open to boundless and unexplored 
fields. He, therefore, who thinks that he knows any 
thing perfectly, proves thereby that he does not know 
it as one ought to know it ; that he does not perceive 
its relations to the unfathomable truth. The whole 
universe is a combination of thoughts and ideas, nu- 
merous and diversified beyond our power to count, but 
nevertheless bound together in one harmonious whole ; 
the whole universe being in fact but one thought of 
the Divine mind. The human mind can never ex- 



23 

liaust its wondrous meaning. That which seems sim- 
plest to "US contains in reahtj an infinite depth of 
God's thought, and it is only our ignorance or our 
self-conceit that makes us suppose that we perfectly 
understand it. The first point in true learning and 
the last point are always the same ; namely, to learn 
that there is something more to be learned. This is 
the greatest value of learning, — to be made continu- 
ally aware of the ^^resence of something higher, some- 
thing wider, something better, something more Divine, 
to which we may aspire. 

Now it appears to me self-evident that this highest 
fruit of learning can be nowhere more surely gathered 
than from the field of the natural sciences. That 
which is abstract never appeals so vividly to our feel- 
ings as that which is concrete. And while I would be 
far from implying that education has power in itself 
to regenerate a human spirit, I think it not inconsist- 
ent with that written Word which has beyond contro- 
versy been the most powerful of all visible agents in 
redeeming the human race, to say that the study of 
nature in its varied aspects is another of the most 
effectual modes of calling out the better feelings of 
the heart. When the abstract teachings of ethics and 
theology have been forgotten, and long familiarity 
with the customs of society has made the soul indifier- 
ent to all higher themes, nothing more frequently pen- 
etrates to the inner seat of life and awakens those 
better emotions which are the pride and glory of man- 



24 



hood, than the presence of some natural object of un- 
usual interest or unusual beauty. The sight of a 
flower, or the song of a bird, recalling the memory of 
an innocent childhood, has frequently melted a heart 
which would remain unmoved by the logic of an Ed- 
'svards or the fervor of a Wesley. 

In childhood the senses are open to the reception of 
truth from the outward world. A child sees and hears 
a thousand things that escape the observation of a 
man. Train him in the usual mode of education and 
he soon loses the habit of attending to outward things, 
learns to tread upon the insect and to pass by the 
flowers, to let the bird sing unnoticed, and the pebble 
glitter untouched. But give him a true education, 
including in his studies, as a prominent part, the ele- 
ments of chemistry, botany, and zoology, and his eye 
shall not become dim nor his ear dull of hearing; in 
manhood his heart will be open to the sweet influence 
of the flowers, and to the grandeur of the starry heav- 
ens; he will read the meaning of each singing bird, 
and catch the true expression of the solemn tones of 
the thunder. Y/hen the forest ocean surges under a 
July breeze, and the clouds sail majestically through 
the blue sky, they will fill his heart with emotions 
unknown to one who despises these glorious works of 
the Most Hisrh as beino^ mere matter. I as-ain ac- 
knowledge that no course of education can be able to 
redeem a fallen soul ; simple diet and exercise cannot, 
at least in one generation, remove the taint of hered- 



25 

itary disease. But what study can have a greater 
effect in leading a student to a reverence for the jDur- 
poses of God, and for the laws of his own being, than 
that of those natural sciences which are directly occu- 
pied in investigating the thoughts, purposes, and ac- 
tions of the supreme creative will ? And what studies 
can put into the hands of one who truly desires to 
serve his fellow-men, more valuable instruments to 
serve them, than those natural sciences which, through 
their application to the necessities of human life and 
to the wants of human society, have so gloriously dis- 
tinguished the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? 
Far be it from me to disparage the value of artistic, 
literary, metaphysical, and mathematical culture. I 
am urging the claims of the natural sciences partly 
because of the aid which an acquaintance with them 
can give in the pursuit of all other branches of learn- 
ing, and in the exercise of all branches of art. From 
what source does the sculptor draw his inspiration, 
and what enables him to make a " statue that enchants 
the world ? " Or how does the painter give to a little 
piece of canvas a value that endures for ages, and 
makes every beholder rich ? These artists had their 
sense of beauty cultivated by a reverent contempla- 
tion of natural forms and natural colors, their artistic 
powers of execution guided by a careful study of anat- 
omy, and of the laws of light and vision. What gives 
the musical composer his power to control the hearts 
of men ? His sensibilities have been cultivated by an 

3 



26 

attention to the music of nature, and his artistic power 
guided by a knowledge of the laws of sound and of 
hearing. What can give a greater charm to the pages 
of literature and to the periods of the orator than 
fresh odors from the woods and fields, and living fig- 
ures from the wild creatures of his own country ? The 
hills of New England would furnish to a thoroughly 
trained New England orator, a honey of eloquence as 
sweet as that of the Athenian Hymettus. Where shall 
the metaphysician learn to correct the wandering of 
his thoughts and to keep his feet firmly planted upon 
the ground of common sense so surely as in the natu- 
ral sciences, where alone his theological speculations 
are secured against both pantheistic and atheistic ten- 
dencies, and where alone he can learn his true relation 
to the wholly mortal races, and his real points of supe- 
riority to them ? As for the mathematician, it is man- 
ifest that he can find no problems for the exercise of 
his powers in either of the branches of the hierarchy 
above natural history. As he derives his first concep- 
tions of figure and number from material things, so 
most of the higher problems which are to engage his 
attention in the coming centuries will be suggested by 
an investigation of the forms and motions of the phys- 
ical universe. The question of the organic forms has 
scarcely yet been touched, and only the vaguest hints 
been given either in botany or zoology of the mode 
by which we can approach the study of the number- 
less varieties of natural figures. 



27 

A practical inquiry may be made as to the extent to 
which I should recommend the study of each one of 
the natural sciences as a part of liberal culture. But 
as this is not a fit occasion for entering into details, I 
must content myself with answering, that if my views 
of the hierarchy of sciences are correct, the natural 
sciences should occupy in the general scheme of com- 
mon education as prominent a place as the languages, 
and for general purposes of culture should precede a 
knowledge of other tongues. At the same time I 
would freely admit, that uncultivated men, seeing the 
great economical value of a knowledge of physical 
laws, will be, in our age of the world, apt to overesti- 
mate the value of natural science ; and it becomes men 
of liberal culture to maintain also the value of classical 
learning, of historical investigation, of metaphysical 
analysis, of ethical and theological discussions. The 
common-place truth, that different men have different 
tastes and different powers, is, like every other com- 
mon truth, a valuable guide in our higher inquiries. 
We must no more expect by a course of education to 
make all men naturalists, than to make all linguists, or 
all mathematicians. One object in making our scheme 
of common study thorough and comprehensive is, I 
repeat it, to make men the better specialists ; and it 
would be as great a mistake to underrate the value of 
the mathematics, the languages, history, logic, or moral 
philosophy, as it is to underrate the natural sciences. 
If my plea in behalf of the latter study has any force 



28 

or value, it arises from the connection of the five great 
departments of thought as essential parts of one whole ; 
and from the logical precedence in time in which these 
studies should follow each other in a natural education. 
I should as strenuously oppose the exclusion of the 
Greek and Latin -tongues from the general course of 
instruction, as I should advocate the introduction of 
natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, and geology. 
History is an absolutely essential part of a liberal edu- 
cation ; the study of language is the most essential part 
of history (since language is the necessary vehicle for 
conveying thought, and the history of thought is of 
course more important than the history of action) ; 
and, finally, the study of the Greek and Latin tongues 
is the most important part of the study of languages, 
because those tongues are, for many reasons, the most 
important that have ever yet been spoken. The 
Greeks, to whose authority I have appealed in behalf 
of mathematics, physics, and metaphysics, as branches 
of liberal culture, paid also much attention to gram- 
mar,, logic, and rhetoric ; and our education will be in- 
ferior to theirs, if we, dazzled by the brilliant achieve- 
ments of physics and mathematics in the nineteenth 
century, should be led to neglect the study of our own 
language, or of those tongues from which it draws its 
elements of grace and subtilty. 

The practical question, to what extent any branch 
of science must be pursued, will depend for its solution 
partly on the average age and capacity of the pupils, 



29 



partly on the ability and tastes of the instructors who 
can be readily obtained, and principally on the length 
of time over which the course of studies is to be ex- 
tended. The question is, theoretically, of easy solution. 
Each department of science is to be pursued to pre- 
cisely the extent required for a foundation of the suc- 
ceeding branches in the same curriculum. The diffi- 
culty will consist in determining what extent is thus 
required, without allowing ourselves to be biased by 
our individual tastes. 

A second inquiry may be made as to the possibility of 
introducing so many branches into a limited course. 
It is maintained by some, that the increased breadth of 
culture thus obtained, does not compensate for the nec- 
essary lack of thoroughness, and that a change in our 
general course of academic instruction such as I here 
recommend, would render our scholars still more ob- 
noxious than ever to that charge of superficiality 
which is so often brought against them. I might reply 
to this question of the possibility of studying all things, 
by simply saying that I have demonstrated it to be 
desirable, and that " whatsoever is desirable is possible, 
and will one day become actual." If the succession of 
the great departments of knowledge be such as I main- 
tain it to be, the course of instruction which I have 
marked out is necessary, and therefore possible. But I 
believe that experience is already able to show that, in 
a varied course of study, such as I here recommend, 
the progress of the pupil is actually greater in each 



30 



branch, than it would be if he had not pursued the 
other studies. A change of occupation is a rest and 
refreshment to the mind ; and when those occupations 
are arranged in a natural order, the labor of taking 
them up successively, and making a certain amount of 
progress in each, is not at all proportioned to the num- 
ber of pursuits. The objection to a want of thorough- 
ness, which it is supposed might proceed from a multi- 
plicity of studies, is based upon what I consider a mis- 
understanding of the essentials to a thorough under- 
standing of any science. I admit that thoroughness of 
acquaintance with details, and familiarity with the mi- 
nuting of a subject, that is, the thoroughness of a spe- 
cialist, is to be attained only by long continued and 
patient investigation, necessarily consuming much time. 
But a thorough acquaintance with principles, and with 
the main facts illustrating those principles, is far more 
important in the culture of the soul, than any acquaint- 
ance with detail ; and it may be acquired in much less 
time. On the other hand, a firm grasp of fundamental 
principles is very frequently not acquired by those who 
have gained a thorough familiarity with all the details 
of a subject. When a student has, in the academic 
course, been thoroughly grounded, as he easily may be, 
in the principles of all the principal sciences, he will be 
much better prepared to turn his attention with advan- 
tage to those sciences especially connected with his 
professional studies. It is impossible for a man to keep 
up through life a perfectly liberal culture ; we must all 



31 

become specialists in that department to which natm^al 
proclivity inclines us : — 

Trahit sua quemque voluptas. 

And each man will be the better qualified to labor, 
in whatsoever department his work lies, in proportion 
to the breadth and depth of his acquaintance with all 
other departments. 

In order that our philosophy may be a safe guide of 
our lives, it must be a sound and comprehensive sys- 
tem, embracing all departments of our thought and 
action, and misleading us in none. As the ages roll 
onward, and the purposes of God with respect to our 
human race become more apparent, we are amazed at 
the greatness of the work which is intrusted to our 
feeble hands. It becomes evident that a subdivision of 
labor is necessary, and that each person must do that 
part for which he is best fitted by the gifts of nature 
and by the acquirements of education. But with the 
advantage of this subdivision of labor may also come 
the disadvantage of introducing a diversity of interests, 
and an alienation of sympathies among those who 
should be brethren. Before a man gives himself up to 
the special pursuits of his profession, let him so thor- 
oughly understand the spirit and aim of other profes- 
sions, as to be always in sympathy with all true minds. 
It is partly from the neglect of natural history, in the 
general course of liberal education, that men have 
been so much occupied in Avrangling about matters 



32 



above their comprehension, while they have left un- 
learned the plainest lessons in the school of life. It is 
not from, acquaintance with natural science, but from a 
partial ignorance of it, — ignorance of its highest teach- 
ings, — that some men have failed to see in natural 
objects those religious truths which are the necessary 
intellectual basis for understanding the plan of crea- 
tion. Beyond question, the opposite fault, which, 
under pretence of worshipping the Father of our spir- 
its, despises the bodies he has made, and speaks with 
contempt of the vain pursuits of natural philosophy, 
of studying stars and tides, matter and motion, arises 
from an imperfect and erroneous culture. 

The theme to which I have invited your attention 
has wide relations to the future welfare of all nations 
and all classes of society. It is not for man to add to 
the original powers which the Almighty has bestowed 
upon each of his creatures. Those who have expected 
that education would transform all students alike into 
men of talent, and even into men of genius, are 
doomed to disappointment. But as surely as the pro- 
ducts of the garden exceed the wild fruit of the forest, 
so surely has our common scheme of education a pow- 
erful influence over the general tone of human thought 
and the general extent of human attainments. A par- 
tial culture, omitting from the course of instruction 
essential departments of the hierarchy of science, must 
perpetuate narrowness of view and littleness of aim. 
But let our general course of education in our common 



schools and colleges be planned according to wide and 
comprehensive views, giving a broad and liberal culture 
to all our people, and there shall surely arise among us 
men who will carry forward each branch of philosophy, 
science, and art toward perfection, and who shall rejoice 
not only at the raj)id development of his chosen art or 
science, but at the general success of his fellows. 
When we reflect upon the mighty changes of the last 
two centuries, produced in great measure by the in- 
creasing attention to natural science, since the days of 
Galileo and Gilbert, and by the introduction, through 
the influence of Lord Bacon's educational writings, of 
scientific themes among the speculations of the learned ; 
when we see also that the rate of change, both in the 
progress of science and of art, has, within the period of 
our own observation, been rapidly accelerating, we can 
hardly look forward with too lively a hope for the still 
more splendid fruits which may spring from a better 
cultivation of the human powers under this clearer 
light, which seems so rapidly approaching a noonday 
brightness. But the noonday of science can never 
arrive ; her light is to increase without end. The re- 
sources of an absolutely infinite Spirit for the instruc- 
tion and happiness of His creatures can never be ex- 
hausted. It has been recently stated by a member of 
our fraternity (of whose correctness in calculation 
there can be no doubt), that a single division of a sin- 
gle department of one branch in the hierarchy of 
science, contains an abundant occupation for the most 



34 



powerful human intellect, for at least a hundred mil- 
lions of years. If there is so much untilled land in a 
single division of the single science of Geometry, it is 
evident that no human mind can estimate how vast the 
field of the whole encyclopedia ; nor weigh the irresist- 
ible strength of the presumption thence arising, that 
we are 

Heirs of eternity, yborn to rise 

Thro' endless states of being ; still more near 

To bliss approaching and perfection clear. 



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